Building the Ark, and Killing Giants

The weekend away with the men from New Covenant hearing from Tony Ling was wonderful! Tony opened the weekend with a message from Genesis 6, which chronicles the mysterious "Nephilim" or giants that were rebelling against God in Noah's day. The encouragement was brought to "build the ark" that is Christ's Church and allow God to take care of killing the "giants" of our day. The rest of the messages were portraits painted from Scripture of how God has killed giants in the past and exhortations on how He might use his Church to slay giants again.

I am amazed at Tony's deep knowledge of Scripture. It is more than obvious from listening to him speak that he does not simply construct some sort of topical message to deliver to God's people, but rather, his messages are the out-flowing of a love for and a prophetic discernment of God's Word. He is able to take comments that might normally sound cliche or trite, such as, "God is raising up a generation of young men to fulfill his purposes," and make them completely fresh and new by putting them in the context of the precedent of God's activity in the grand scheme of Scripture. It is wonderful to see the prophetic gift in action; not in the sense of giving spooky or weird predictions, but simply in bringing the Word of God to His people in a fresh way that speaks to a specific situation. And yes, he did make reference to my favorite biblical hero, "Shamgar, Son of Anath!"

Blood, Guts, and a Toilet

This weekend is the New Covenant Church's men's retreat, and we are going to have the privilege of hearing from Tony Ling, a prophet and teacher from England. I can think of few people I look forwarding to hearing from more, especially since I haven't had the opportunity to hear him in person since I was much younger. I was probably ten or eleven the last time I heard him, but phrases such as, "Blood, guts and a toilet!" describing the story of Ehod and King Eglon in Judges 3, or "Shamgar, Son of Anath! [shouted as though it was the name of a superhero]" also of Judges 3 who killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad, will stick with me as long as I live, reminding me of the obscure but powerful stories all throughout Scripture. These types of messages are Mr. Ling's specialty, but despite the humor, it is far more than a simple gimmick. He uses these stories in such a way as to bring timely words and true prophetic vision to the people of God in a way quite unlike any other. I'm looking forward to an amazing weekend, sure to be full of exposition of the word, prophetic insight, great fellowship, and undoubtedly, some pick up basketball (sure to result in many bruised and aching middle-aged men).

Reformation 21

Just a quick note to draw attention to a great blog that I recently added to my list of links. Reformation 21 is the blog for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Its contributions come from the likes of Rick Phillips, Phillip Ryken, Ligon Duncan, Derek Thomas, and others. Its a really great blog that will keep you up to date on new book releases, cultural issues, and all kinds of happenings in the world of Reformed Evangelicalism. Be sure to check out Rick Phillips' Reflections on Uganda, part 1 and part 2.

N.T. Wright: Fresh Perspective, or Simply, Fresh Insight?

I recently finished reading N.T. Wright's latest book, Paul: In Fresh Perspective, which is based on a series of lectures that he gave at a number of places, including the Auburn Avenue Pastor's Conference. Having read a good bit of the material that is out there critiquing the New Perspective controversy, I thought it was time to give Wright a fair shot and read some of his original material. This is good place to start, especially for someone like myself who has not previously read any of Wright's works. Paul gives an overview of the work that he has done in Pauline studies up to this point and points forward to possible areas for further research.

I must confess, I was not sure what my reaction would be before I started reading. Most of the summaries and examinations of Wright and New Perspectives that I had read to that point were extremely negative in tone. While I believe that this negative tone is not only warranted but necessary in the discussion of Wright's take on Paul and justification, I was very surprised to find that I not only agreed with much he had to say, but also found his writing style to be winsome and extremely enjoyable. His blending of careful scriptural exegesis with extensive historical context is like nothing else I've read before. In particular, his chapter on Gospel and Empire shows an amazing ability to bring an understanding of the historical aspects of the Roman empire in Paul's day to bring out subtleties in Paul's letter to the Philippians. Wright notes that Caesar promised to be a 'Saviour' to the to cities, bringing freedom, justice, peace, and ultimately 'salvation.' Paul, living in the context of this sort of language, frames his letter to the Philippians in the same sort of language. By telling the Philippians that their "citizenship is in heaven," Paul challenges their allegiance to Rome in favor of the heavenly city. By speaking of the work of Christ in terms of bringing freedom, peace, and salvation, he is challenging allegiance to Caesar in favor of allegiance to Christ.

These type of insights are numerous and truly delightful. However, there are also serious concerns with much of Wright's conclusions, especially on the issues covenant markers and justification. For Wright, the Judaizers in Galatians were not guilty of imposing a 'works' religion on the New Testament church. The issue was not about works, but rather how the members of the New Covenant were to be identified. As Wright states it:

The doctrine of justification by faith...was never about how people were to be converted, how someone might become a Christian, but about how one could tell, in the present, who God's true people were...

This sort of idea is repeated in similar language many times through out the course of the book. The consequence of this is that justification is not longer to be considered (at least solely) as a declarative event that happens at a single point in time. Instead, justification has to do with the identity markers of the sacraments and good works performed, all proven in an eschatological fulfillment. Granted, my rendition of Wright's comments is not doubt far less subtle than his actual statements, and I'm sure that he would take issue with it. I would restate them more closely if I could, but I confess, in attempting to reword them, this truly seems to be the spirit of what is communicated. Wright is of course more capable of communicating them in a way that doesn't seem to indicate a sort of works righteousness than I am. But in this case, I think my inability to artfully cover this over reveals the true error of his view on justification. It seems that the whole issue could be boiled down to this: if being justified is about something seen in us, then it is not longer about what Christ has done and applied to us.

So, while there is undoubtedly much to be gained from Wright, there is also much to be lost. If we read this work uncritically, without being steeped in a biblical understanding of justification as God's declaration that we are right with him on account of the work of Christ, then we are in danger of being directed to trust in some sort of identity marker or eschatological vindication for our peace with God. While there is much insight to be taken from Wright, it seems that his perspective is not so 'fresh.'

Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God

As you can see, I have neglected this blog for some time. I think the best way to start back will be to do some reviews of some books I have been reading recently. Hopefully this will spur me on to once again entering more regular posts.

Over the Christmas break I had the opportunity to read Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God by Gordon D. Fee. Fee is a Pentecostal exegete who believes that the Church is in vital need of a more robust theology of the Holy Spirit. This is a topic that I have been dwelling on for some time now and have done a couple of posts on. Fee deals with this topic in a way that is undoubtedly prophetic for the Church at large and seemingly for me personally as well. He sees Paul's theology as an unfolding and explanation of the experience that he has had with the Holy Spirit. This is founded on the objective work of Christ and a forensic declaration of righteous, of course, but the way that Paul communicates his message is as an explanation of a subjective experience that he has had concerning these things.
Fee lays out a theology of the Spirit that elevates the Holy Ghost to His proper (and almost totally neglected) place in the life of the Church and the individual while remaining fervently Christocentric.

Fee sums up the heart of Paul's theology of the Spirit in nine points that are well worth "re-summarizing":

1. The key to Christian experience - While Christ is the center of Paul's theology, the Spirit must play a more vital role in terms of how the Spirit makes Christ known to us.

2. God breaking into our lives - Paul is arguing from a point of a dynamic experience of the Holy Spirit and expects it to be the norm for his churches. We must recover this expectation of a dramatic breaking in of the Spirit.

3. End-time evidence and guarantee of glory - The coming of the Spirit has fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament and now is the guarantee of the future glory that is already with us but is not yet seen in full.

4. God dwelling in and among us - Just as God dwelt with his people in the temple in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit now dwells continually among God's people who are themselves the new temple.

5. "God very God" - it is foundational for Paul that the Spirit is the very expression of God the Father and of Christ.

6. Salvation made effective - because salvation is a fully trinitarian act, Paul always reminds the churches of their salvation in terms of their experience of the Holy Spirit.

7. A people called forth - God's people are made into the united body of Christ by their common experience of the Holy Spirit and called to begin to live the future life of glory in the present.

8. Righteousness made possible - the people of God are continually described as living "in the Spirit," empowered by the Spirit to live out, as Fee says, the "ethical life in all its dimensions."

9. The key to Christian worship - in our individual lives we are commanded to pray, "in the Spirit," and as a body it is Paul's expectation that the empowering presence of the Spirit will be manifested itself among us in "charismata."

This is truly an inspiring and, I would even say, life-changing read. Fee's call to a full-orbed Trinitarian theology is exactly the thing that will flood the Church with life. This is truly the way in which we are to go about fulfilling the Reformation call to be "semper reformanda." As he states, "If we are going to count for much in the post-modern world in which we now live, the Spirit must remain the key to the church's existence."

Amen!